All the News, Reviews, Guides and Reports on Electric Cars

The week of December 15 started out with grim news for hybrid production, and didn’t get much better. The world's two largest car companies, Toyota and General Motors, both delayed assembly plants for high-profile hybrids.

President Nicolas Sarkozy is accused of squelching a negative report about electric cars because of personal connections. Companies owned by French industrial magnates Vincent Bolloré and Serge Dassault are major investors in the development of electric cars, including the Pininfarina B0 (B Zero).

The recently unveiled Mercedes-Benz BlueZero concept vehicles are built with the flexibility to insert electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell technologies into the same vehicle design. It’s easy to dismiss the BlueZero sketches as just another cool green concept car that will never see the light of day, but it could be a glimpse into a future lineup of small Mercedes cars with varying degrees of electric power.

Electric carmaker Th!nk was denied its request to the Norwegian government for loan guarantees to weather the current economic crisis. The denial may have sealed the company’s fate.

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is drawing fire over his request for a $350 million loan from the federal government. Although the company receives widespread support for its leadership role in the burgeoning electric car industry, critics argue that Tesla's request to use taxpayer money to help a company making cars for wealthy patrons is elitist and wrong.

Mercedes-Benz will unveil three electric concept vehicles at next month's 2009 Detroit Auto Show. The designs are small and sleek, with a sporty futuristic edge.

While the goal of most automakers is to make money making cars, it appears that electric car companies have another side pursuit—suing competitors. Is this all about the massive ego necessary to launch a car company? Or is it just something about electric cars? You be the judge, based on our rap sheet of high-profile lawsuits regarding electric and hybrid cars.

Electric car fans cheered this week’s announcement that Better Place, a startup based in Palo Alto, Calif., signed up the State of Hawaii to build a statewide recharging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles. But critics and some sympathetic supporters playing the role of Devil’s Advocates are asking tough questions.

The Michelin tire company is getting closer to commercializing its electric wheel concept. The company has been showing versions of the “Active Wheel” since 2004. The system contains virtually all the components necessary for a vehicle to propel or stop. The only thing missing is the source of energy. Check out our gallery of motor-wheel vehicles, dating from 1900 to 2008.

Electric cars get more than their share of press these days. Just consider the Tesla Roadster, or the Chevrolet Volt. But a quiet startup in California, Miles Electric, may bring the first fully electric sedan to the US market within 18 months—and it would be the first Chinese-made car sold here as well. In an exclusive two-hour interview, president and CEO Kevin Czinger discussed the company’s strategy, its market positioning, and the development of its Highway Speed model.